Los Angeles daily herald., 1887-12-04
IN 1856.
The San Francisco Vigil
ance Committee.
WILLIAM T. COLEMAN.
The Killing Of James King, Of
William. and the Hanging Of
Casey and Cora.

voted his two latest volumes to an
account of the popular tribunals
which, owing to the shortcomings in
the normal machinery of justice, were
from time to time esta blished in the
States and Territories west of the
Rocky mountains. OF these volumes
the first, which appeared some months
ago, was allotted to the San Francisco
Vigilance Committee of 1851, and to
the minor organizations which in out
lying settlements were called into
being by its example. The volume
now before US was reserved for the
exhibition OF the acts OF the much
more famous tribunal which the citi-
zens of San Francisco substituted for
the ordinary law courts in 1856.
There had been, as Mr.. Bancroft
shows us in some preliminary chap
ters, no diminution of crime in San
Francisco after the terror excited by
the committee of 1851 had spent its
force, but there had been o marked
change in the methods of criminals.
At the earlier epoch they had defed
the law, but they had now learned
how to paralyze its arm by controlling
its administrators. At the primary
meeting and the ballot box they laid =
broad and solid basis for their depre-
dations on the community. A burglar
or murderer, if apprehended in the
act, no longer troubled himself to ro-
sist arrest or escape from imprison-
ment. The policeman who seized
him, the sheriff upon whose selection
depended the composition of the jury.
and the judge who was to try him
were his cronies and his creatures.
The Jail was place of refuge, the
court room a place of redemption.
There was absolutely no post in the
whole administrative and judicial
hierarchy, from that of Governor or
United States Senator to that of in
spectors at primary meeting, which
crime could not approach and in
fuence in thousand subtle ways.
What passed for public opinion re-
fected nothing but the interests and de-
signs of rascals, the virtue, the probity,
the conscience of the community
seemed to possess no voice; the whole
press of San Francisco, with the ex-
ception of single newspaper, was
muzzled by intimidation or debauched
by bribery. The single exception was
the Evening Bulletin, paper owned
and edited by Mr.. James King, and it
was the determination OF the law
breakers to stifie the one remaining
mouthplece of decency and rectitude
by Kings assassination that called
forth the vast latent forces Of society,
and produced the moral earthquake
of May, 1886.
In the Bulletin OF May 14th, Mr..
King had alluded to the notorious fact
thai one James Casey, the pro prietor
of the Sunday Times, and who had
lately been elected Supervisor through
the ballot-stuffing carried out by the
blackleg, Yankee Sullivan, was dis
charged convict, who had done the
State of New York service in Sing
Sing prison. A few hours after
the appearance Of the paper,
the editor was shot by Casey in
Montgomery street, not far from the
Bank Exchanee, and died six days
later. With equanimity and perfect
faith in impunity, Casey suffered
some of the bystanders, who we're his
personal friends, to lead him quietly
to Jail, which, from Casey's point of
view, was an asylum from a possible
outburst Of popular violence. The
taller who would detain him, and the
Judge before whom he expected to he
arraigned, were among his trusted
friends. His calculations were entire
ly justified by his experience, but
he had not counted ON sudden
revival of the Vigilance Committee.
On the very evening after the shoot
ing of King, William L. Coleman, a
member OF the Committee of Thir-
teen, to which on d,sbanding the
original committee of 1851 had trans
.mitted certain powers, issued a call
convoking for the following morning
all respectable citizens disposed to
organize popular tribunal. At this
meeting an Executive Committee Of
twelve was chosen, and Mr.. Coleman
was made President. So numerous
and rapid were the applications for
admission that by P. NJ. on May 18th,
not less Than 1900 men had
been enrolled In companies,
and these numbers before morn
ing were swelled to 1000. BY Satur-
day, May II, 5000 citizens had joined,
aud at the acme OF its efficiency the
Viu;i,pca Com ;ttao of O "a ..,rr:c<>J
Of one battalion, four companies of ar
tillery, one squadron, two troops Of
Dragons, four regiments and thirty
two companies of infantry, in all 5000
men under arms, we'll drilled and
thoroughly equipped with the needful
munitions of war. AS early as May
II, while King was yet alive, the COM
mittee secured headquarters on
Sacramento street, which were
Immediately fortified, and were
thereafter known as Fort Gunnybags.
When these rooms were thrown open
for public exhibition they contained
reserve stock of 1900 muskets, $50
rifles, 37S sabres, 30 artillery swords,
four brass six-pounders. two iron nine
Founders mounted on ship carriages,
five two and four-pounders, and har-
ness for some thirty horses. In this
improvised arsenal the murderer
Casey, and another confessed man
slayer, Cora, (who had been taken
from the jail by 5000 members of the
Vigilance Committee two days before)
we're, on May 20, the day of Kings
death, summarily tried and con-
demned to be hanged, sentence
which was executed from window of
the fortress on May ~.
1t is interesting to read the authors
reference to Mr.. William I. Coleman,
who was, as we have seen, the prime
mover and chief actor in this impo-
sing demonstration OF citizens deter
mined to break the letter and carry
out the purpose OF the law, and who,